542 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



For the Neio- England Farmer. 

 TO THE YOUNG MEN 



Who read the Ncio England Fanner, and all 

 others whom I wish to do so. In the first place, 

 you will please examine the paper, quality of type 

 and g-eneral aspect, and then the character which 

 goes to make up its contents. Take the present 

 number as a specimen — and now, if you choose, 

 compare it with any other paper in New England 

 devoted to the same class of interests, and tlien 

 decide whether it is not the best of any of them, 

 and for your interest to subscribe for it. Let this 

 be your first duty. 



Then there are other duties which I wish to call 

 the attention of our young men to, which we must 

 perform in this life, if we would be useful and a 

 man. How is it with you, young reader, — have 

 you settled the point whether you will be a man ? 

 If you have firmly settled this point in your char- 

 acter, then one-half the work is done ; all things 

 else come almost as a matter of consequence. 

 Very few young men in this country can depend 

 upon family or friend, and none who are in health 

 will, for what is necessary in this life, to make up 

 a noble manhood. There may be those who are 

 called men, who have but to ask and they receive. 

 I have nothing to do with such ; they are the 

 blanks in human society, to all intents and pur- 

 poses, but I mean the thousands of young, clear- 

 headed, strong, healthy men, scattered all over 

 New England, who have got their character and 

 fortune to make in life ; their social and cash- 

 standing among their fellow-men. To these I ad- 

 dress myself. Having settled the point that you 

 will be a man, such as God approves and mankind 

 acknowledge as such, the next thing is, how you 

 shall accomplish your purpose. Decide u])on some 

 pursuit, no matter what, if it be honest, and then 

 follow it — stick to it — stick, stick, stick. Thou- 

 sands fail here. Llet nothing turn you from it ; if 

 you fail once, twice, yea seven times, do not give 

 up, but still stick to it, and in the end success is 

 just as certain to come as God spares your life and 

 time moves on ! I speak from observation which 

 has been somewhat extensive, and exi>erience, now 

 at the age of forty-four. 'I'housands of young men 

 have proved nearly worthless to the world, from 

 not attending to these suggestions ; because, per- 

 haps, at their start in life, a few failures and dis- 

 appointments came, they became discouraged and 

 gave up. I tell you, my young friend, t'nere is no 

 man here, not a particle of the genuine article such 

 as I mean. If there had been, instead of giving 

 up and ever after passing a useless life, these fail- 

 ures and disappointments would only have stimu- 

 lated them to review the ground where they stood, 

 and passed over, and with redoul)led energy the 

 blows would have been laid on heavier and more 

 rapid, and success compelled to come and lay its 

 trophies at their feet. She will not come, howev- 

 er, by giving up — only "be sure you are right, 

 then go ahead." Never look back unless to gain 

 strength to push more constantly, steadily forward, 

 and the end sought for will come. Is there any 

 exception to this law ? 



Su]jpose you decide on being a farmer, and 

 agriculture is the most noble of all human em- 

 plojments, you have nothing to begin with but 

 your manhood, and strong arms. I would say to 

 you, do not be in too great haste to have a large 



farm ; a few acres paid for will bring more profit 

 than a large number and a heavy debt to carry. 

 Still, I am one of those who believe there is profit 

 in farming — that the right man, in the right i)lace. 

 can nm in debt for his farm, stock and tools, main- 

 tain his family, pay for his farm and take the pa- 

 per besides. It has been done often ; I know of 

 those now doing it, but so far as I am capable of 

 observing, it is not the best course to follow by 

 the majority. There is more in the vtayi, than 

 any defect or fault in the business. I may safely 

 say this — get your money first, and the farm comes 

 as a matter of course. To do this you need not 

 abandon farming — on the contrary, while getting 

 the money you will be learning valuable lessons 

 for future profit. N. Q. T. 



King Oak Hill, 1862. 



"WHAT A VOLCANO CAN DO, 



Cotopaxi, in 1738, threw its fiery rockets 3,000 

 feet above its crater, while in 1744 the blazing mass 

 struggling for an outlet, roared so that its awful 

 voice was heard a distance of more than 600 miles. 

 In 1797 the crater of Tunguragua, one of the great 

 peaks of the Andes, flung out torrents of mud, 

 which dammed up rivers, opened new lakes, and 

 in a valley of a thousand feet wide made deposits 

 six hundred feet deep. The stream from Vesuvi- 

 us which, in 1737, passed through Torre del Gre- 

 co, contained 33,600,000 cubic feet of solid matter, 

 and in 1794, when ToiTe del Greco was desti'oyed 

 a second time, the mass of lava amounted to 45,- 

 000,000 cubic feet. In 1679 Etna poured around 

 a flood which covered 84 square miles of surface, 

 and measured nearly 100,000,000 cubic feet. On 

 this occasion the sand and scoria? formed Monte 

 Rossi, near Nicolosi, a cone two miles in circum- 

 ference and 4,000 feet high. The stream thrown 

 out by Etna, in 1810, was in motion at the rate of 

 a yard per day, for nine months after the eruption ; 

 and it is on record that the lavas of the same 

 mountain, after a terrible eruption, were not 

 thoroughly cooled and consolidated ten years af- 

 ter the event. In the eruption of Vesuvius, A. D. 

 79, the scorife and ashes vomited forth fiir exceed- 

 ed the entire bulk of the mountain, while in 1660 

 Etna disgorged fnore than twenty times its own 

 mass. Vesuvius has thrown its ashes as far as 

 Constantinople, Syria, and Egypt; it hurled stones 

 eight pounds in weight, to Pompeii, a distance of 

 six miles, while similar masses were tossed up 2,- 

 000 feet above its summit. Cotopaxi has projected 

 a block of 109 cubic yards in volume, a distance 

 of nine miles, and Tomboro, in the island of Sum- 

 bawa, in 1815, during the most terrible eruption 

 on record, sent its ashes as far as Java, a distance 

 of 340 miles. In the district of Tomboro, alone, 

 out of a population of 12,000 souls, only twenty- 

 six escaped. — Recreative Science. 



Gigantic Pitchke. Plants, (NepentJies, vari- 

 ous species.) — In "Life in the Forests of the Far 

 East," a new work on Borneo, by Spencer St. 

 John, we learn that Kina Balu abounds in many 

 species of those curious ])lants, more than twenty 

 species having been collected by Mr, Hugh Low, 

 son of i\Ir. H. Low, of the Clapton nurseries, who 

 has now been long attached to the establishment 

 of Sir James Brooke, the Rajah of Sarawak. One 



